Beyond the Brightly Lit Night: “Bhupa Praemai” Ep 1 Recap

Posted on June 12, 2012

The festivities of Loi Krathong are heavily underway in the brightly lit province of Chiang Mai, as Bhupa catches a woman who ran helplessly into him. Two men close in behind her as she pleas for his help.

“They’re going to kidnap me,” she exclaimed as she holds on to his arm, begging him, a complete stranger to help her.

The two thugs warned him to stay away, but Bhupa (starring Por) places her behind him and said that if there is a woman in distress, he shall help her.

The woman, light skinned and doe eyes, watches in amazement as the stranger fights the two thugs; her knight in shining armor. And she tells him that he is like a hero out of a movie and thanks him profusely for helping her.

Bhupa ignores her flattery and asked her why they were after her.

She immediately looked away guiltily and said that her adopted father wants to rape her and she is running away from him. Bhupa recommends she seeks help from the police but she backs away, avoiding any officials at all cost.

“Can I be frank with you?” she asked him awkwardly, peering at him between her bangs. “I just arrived to Thailand and I don’t have any friends. Can I go with you?”

Bhupa is flabbergasted at her audacity.

“I have no where else to go… and you’re talented!”

“I don’t want any burden,” he relents and stalks away.

In a traditional style home, a woman worries about Praemai, her daughter, who ran away that morning.

We glean that Pan (starring Joy Rinlanee) envies her sister who is receiving the attention from the Prince as well as her mother. Pan and Praemai are not biological and Pan clearly despises her.

Her aunt (starring Kik Mayurin) encourages her to do whatever she could to win over the Prince and prevent this marriage.

—

Back at the festivities, Praemai is still following Bhupa, the stranger who rescued her. Unfortunately the thugs are still after her as they get into another brawl. She notices one of them with a knife and jumps in front of Bhupa to protect him- yet she gets slashed in her forearm.

Finally, Bhupa was able to lose them as they hide in a car. They snuggled close as the thugs circumvent the car. Distracted by the noise, the thugs left them alone.

Praemai’s forearm is bleeding and she looses her grip. Unintentionally, she finds herself falling on Bhupa as they look surprisingly into each other’s eyes.

Fireworks lit the dark night sky as the two made their way towards the throngs of people. Praemai knew the only way she will be safe is to be with him- so she shamelessly begs him to promise to stay with her- at least until morning.

Bhupa looks exasperatingly at her and wonders why he needed to make a promise to stay with her.

“I’m afraid you’ll runaway. I need your scouts honor, please?”

Bhupa could not resist helping a damsel in distress more than he could help breathing, so he relents. They pinky swear and then absorbed the festivities around them.

She is like a kid in a candy store- after all- she had been away from Thailand for so long.

Bhupa calls his friend that he will be canceling their loi krathong as he had a business to attend to. Unfortunately on the other end- his friend’s sister named Pam-Kaew- had wholeheartedly counted on floating the loi krathong on the river with him. She is hopelessly in love with him.

Pan is playing another man for his attention and money. She’s been dating him for a few months now and has been telling him that her name is Praemai.. can’t imagine why she would do that (insert sarcasm.)

He is led to believe that he is the luckiest man on earth because she loves him.

It also turns out, that the man she is playing is Bhupa’s brother (starring Bie Suwit)!

—

With her cheerful and carefree attitude, Praemai encouraged Bhupa (the cynic) to partake in the festivities. They lighted the candles for the floating light, and sent loi krathong off into the river.

As they sit amidst the café by the river, Praemai inquired what Bhupa was praying for.

He replied, “I pray for the sake of praying. I don’t like to ask for things from anyone. If I wanted anything, I would find it on my own.”

It is how he views the world.

But Praemai said, “There are certain things that you can’t find on your own.”

He scoffs and asked rhetorically, “are there really some things that one cannot find on one’s own?”

“Well there’s love,” Praemai answered.

“So you prayed for love?”

“I pray that I will meet my soul mate.”

He rolls his eyes.

“I just want to meet someone who loves me and I love him- two people who are born to be soul mates.”

“You’re unbelievable,” he said, “you’re running away from thugs and you’re still daydreaming about love? Have you not experienced any difficulties/distress in life?”

“Of course,” Praemai said calmly, “it is among us, but if we look at the bright side of things, we will be happy. Like me, right now.”

She looked at him, “what about you, aren’t you happy?”

“I’m just whatever.”

“You’re such a romantic,” she said sarcastically.

But he peers at her as she smiles, looking up at the darkened night.

As the night draws to a close, Praemai and Bhupa made their way to a hotel. It turns out there is only one vacancy and they must share a bedroom.

He warns her that she should not trust a stranger- especially when he’s a man.

She adamantly replies that she would rather stay with a stranger who has saved her life and so far, she feels that she has made the right decision. Bhupa is turning out to be more and more of a gentlemen in Praemai’s eyes. She adored the fact that he rescued her, that he stuck around to help her and that he gave up the bed for her. Who could blame her? He may have a bad mouth, but he’s certainly handy to have around. Not to mention his quirky, cute face.

As he showers, Praemai calls her mother. She tells her that she will not be returning home until she rescinds the marriage proposal from the prince. There was no way she would marry someone she did not love. By now, it is clear that Praemai is a romantic and will do anything to stick to her principles- or shall we say, ideologies.

The phone immediately rang after she was finished with her mom.

It was Pam-Kaew, asking for Bhupa. Praemai told her that Bhupa is currently in the shower and is not in the position to take calls. She also added that he did not want to talk to anyone else but her (Praemai.) So Pam-Kaew bursts into silent tears as she hears this and Praemai hangs up the phone, feeling dreadful. She sincerely apologizes into the night sky that she had to lie, but she did it because she was afraid he would leave her.

In Bhupa’s eyes, she’s fanciful. He has never met a woman who adored the notion of love so dearly. She told him a tale about cupid before she goes to bed, hugging the ridiculous pink bear that he won for her.

“For a girl, love is very important.”

“That is nonsense.”

She scoffs at him but hits the nail on the head, “You look at love as if it is something nonsensical.”

How could he not smile at her when she’s not looking?

That night Praemai dreamed of the thugs walking into her hotel room, trying to kidnap her again. Screaming she rolls around and falls into Bhupa’s arms (who happened to be sleeping on the floor.)

He held her close to ensure her that she was only dreaming and she wakes up. She scolds him that if he was holding her that way, she would lose her reputation. Bhupa bickers that he was the one who would get ruined since she fell on his lap.

Embarrassed, Praemai scoots back onto the bed and goes to sleep.

The following morning, when she wakes, she finds herself alone in the hotel room. Panicking, she searches the room for Bhupa.

Luckily he only went out to get them some breakfast.

Meanwhile his friend (a cop) runs into the prince’s sister at the mall (she goes by Ying.) She mistook him for a criminal and had her bodyguard apprehend him. They get into a squabble but she learns he is a cop. (I get short attention span around this time because I just want to see what else is going to happen between Praemai and Bhupa.)

—

In the hotel garden area, Praemai brings the breakfast out to Bhupa.

The murky river and the breeze lent a great environment for their tofu milk and bread.

“I didn’t realize a “princess” like you can take care of others,” he commented.

“This is no big deal,” she said as she sits across from him, shrugging the insult. “You risk your life to save mine, I don’t know how else to show my appreciation.”

“I’m surprised that someone who is selfish can think of others..”

“I’m not selfish- and I don’t like for others to take care of me one sided. We all should take care of each other,” she said nonchalantly.

“Sounds great- so why don’t you go and pack your things so I can take you to the station as promised?”

She looked worriedly at him. She was not ready to leave and must find a way to prolong their time..

As he is driving her to the station, she learns that he will be making his way to Bangkok. She convinces him that she must go to Bangkok too as she knew some people and she would much rather ride with him.

He gets a call from his friend who was livid because he caused his sister to cry all night long. While on the phone, he looked over at Praemai who looked away nervously.

Bhupa also learned that Pam-Kaew had called the prior night. As he hangs up, he stalks to the car.

“Why didn’t you tell me Pam-Kaew called?”

“Well- I was afraid that if you knew your girlfriend called, you would leave me to be with her,” she replied apologetically.

“You are so selfish!” he exclaimed. “Do you know that your selfishness hurt Pam-Kaew and caused her to cry non stop?!”’

He continued, “in this world, there is a type of people I hate the most- liars!”

She looked sorry at him.

“I can’t believe you are that type of a person! Get out of my car!”

“Please don’t make me leave!” she begged.

He reaches out and unbuckles her seat belt and roughly pulls her out of the car.

He hands her her bag.

“Don’t make any more excuses! I’m not listening to any more lies.”

She rushes over to open the car door.

“If you so much as sit in this car, I will phone the police!”

She stammers, “I wasn’t about to go with you.. I just want to apologize that I didn’t tell you about Pam-kaew.. and that I’m sorry that I hurt her. “

She pulls the pink teddy bear out of her bag.

“You can take this with you- this little cupid will help Pam-Kaew stop being mad at you and come back to love you. “

She shuts the car door and peers at him sadly.

He rolls the window and drives away.

Yet the further he drives, the more stricken he looks and finally, he can’t stay away and steers the car back.

Unfortunately, a large van pulled up to her and the same thugs stepped out.

‘Tell your boss that the more he does this, the more I will hate him,” she yelled at them.

But they don’t concede and said that they were only doing their jobs.

She contemplates her situation as she stands between the two thugs.

Will Bhupa make it in time to rescue his damsel?

At least we’ll have this moment to enjoy until the next episode..

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12 Comments

Thanks for the recap, they are cute together. I want to see the evolution of their relationship.
When Pan lied about her name, it reminds me of another lakorn (it is predictable).
Long time no see Bee Swiss. I recently watched an old lakorn with him and namfon “Ploy Lom Phet “.

In JLR her cousin didn’t use her name.. The pr’ek just didn’t know there were two young females living in the house and he kidnapped the wrong one. The n’ek didn’t want to reveal the truth because she wanted to protect her cousin and hope that her good deed will repay for the past- she thought her cousin saved her life 🙂 I hope that helps clear things up.

haha it just depends what version of jlr u r speaking of. I know the second version, soriya did say she was sunsanee or was it the first version lol or possible the first two version. in stephan and kob lakorn, her younger half sister used nang ek name when she whores around. in tang pang kammathep, he kidnap the younger sis bc of the same initial and she was wearing white. I think he asked to see the older sis but older sis had lil sis go. he mistook her bc she was wearing white (wedding dress he assume lol) and her initials. lol there r just way too many lakorns that has this similar type of setting. so I don’t know why a lot of people were complaining that this is too much like jlr. well isn’t this too mich like all every other lakorn lmao

Ah, indeed. It’s not surprising that storylines are recycled. That’s why I cherish Lakorns that step out of the norm and offer viewers something different. Or even, play with cliches yet make it great somehow 🙂

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